Schools, Colleges and Universities in Philippines

Glossary of Medical Terms

Health
In accordance with the Constitution of the
World Health Organization
(1948), health is "a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". Health is
defined here as a positive concept, emphasizing social and personal
resources as well as physical capabilities.

Health Care
Services provided to individuals or communities by a health care system or
by professionals to promote, maintain, monitor, or restore health. Health
care contains a broad spectrum of services and activities delivered by a
team of health personnel. This contrasts with medical care, which
concentrates on diagnostic and therapeutic actions performed by or under
the supervision of an individual physician.

Health Economics
A discipline which concentrates on application of the principles and rules
of economics in the sphere of health. In broad terms, it includes analysis
and evaluation of health policy and the health system from an economic
perspective. In particular, it includes health system planning, market
mechanisms, demand for and supply of health care, micro-economic
evaluation of individual diagnostic and therapeutic procedures,
determinants of health and its valuation, and evaluation of the
performance of health care systems in terms of equity and allocative
efficiency.

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)
An organization that arranges a wide spectrum of health care services
which commonly include hospital care, physicians' services and many other
kinds of health care services with an emphasis on preventive care.

Health Management
Systematic use of the full range of human, technical and financial
resources of the health system through planning, organizing, leading and
controlling the effort of members to achieve stated goals and to render
optimum services at minimum cost. Health managers achieve desired goals by
directing and influencing subordinates, and organizing others to perform
essential tasks to ensure that the organization is moving towards its goal
of improving health.

Health Maintenance Services
Any health care service or program that helps maintain an individual's
good health. This includes all preventive medical practices such as
immunizations and periodic examinations, as well as health education and
special self-help programs.

Health Plan
A term that has different meanings depending upon the context. "Health
plan" can be used to mean an HMO; a "health benefits plan" is provided by
an employer to its employees, or services offered by an insurer or third
party administrator to employers and/or employees.

Health Policy
A set of decisions or commitments to pursue courses of action aimed at
achieving defined goals of improving health. Policies usually state or
imply the values that underpin the policy position. They may also specify
the source of funding that can be applied to planning and implementation
of policy and to relevant institutions to be involved in this process.

Health Promotion
The process of enabling individuals to increase control over and improve
their health. It involves the population as a whole in the context of
their everyday lives, rather than focusing on people at risk for specific
diseases, and is directed toward action on the determinants or causes of
health.

Health Risks Appraisal
A method of describing an individual's probability of becoming ill or
dying from selected causes. Starting from the average risk of death for
that individual's age and sex, various lifestyle and physical factors are
considered and it is determined whether the individual is at greater or
lesser than average risk from the commonest causes of death for their age
and sex. Health risk appraisal also indicates the reduction in risk which
could be achieved by the individual's altering any of the causal factors
(such as cessation of cigarette smoking).

Health Services
Services performed by health care professionals or by others under their
direction for the purpose of promoting, maintaining, or restoring health.
In addition to personal health care, health services include health
protection, health promotion, and disease prevention.

Health Status
A general term for the state of health of an individual, group or
population that reflects the degree to which a person is able to function
physically, emotionally, and socially, with or without aid from the health
care system.

Health System
A complex of interrelated elements that contribute to health in homes,
educational institutions, workplaces, public places, and communities. A
health system is usually organized at multiple levels, starting at the
most local level, also known as community or primary health care level,
and proceeding through the intermediate (district, regional or provincial)
to the central level, providing progressively more complex and more
specialized care and support.

Healthy Behavior
The combination of knowledge, practices and attitudes that together
contribute to motivate actions we take regarding our own health. Healthy
behavior may promote and preserve good health. On the other hand,
behaviors harmful to health such as tobacco smoking, alcohol drinking,
drug abuse and lack of physical exercise may be determinants of disease.

Hippocratic Oath, The
An affirmation usually taken by physicians about to enter the practice of
medicine. It is attributed to Greek physician, Hippocrates of Cos, who is
called the "Father of Medicine" (circa 460- 377 B.C). Its content reflects
the ethical code of the physicians' attitudes and behavior and obligations
towards patients, colleagues and society. The complete text can be found
here .